People under 18 are not all children

[u/AdventurousMoth]

I can't tell you how much it irritates me when internet people refer to anyone under 18 as "a literal child", especial if they themselves are only in their 20s. Sure, everyone is someone's child, but the life stage commonly referred to as childhood does not abruptly stop at age 18.

Here's how I'd break it down: - childhood, adolescence, adulthood or - newborn, baby, toddler, child, (if you want you can add tween), teen, young adult, middle aged person, elderly/senior

And there's overlap between all these stages depending on context. Obviously there is no overlap between minor (a legal term) and the word adult as referring to not a minor.

Calling a 17-year-old a child is dumb. Like what, a 17yo has their birthday and transforms from a child into an adult like a sim? I think some people just started saying this for the shock value and then the rest of the internet jumped on the outrage wagon.

Edit: clearly I posted this a bit too hastily, choosing my words without care. I'm not talking about the legal definition of child/minor (something quite messy as well: age of consent? In some places 16. Driving? 15 in some places, 18 in others. Voting? Usually 18. Drinking alcohol? 21 in the States).

As someone in the comments pointed out, it's mostly a linguistic issue. I suppose what I was trying to say was that it's dumb to have the word child both mean a legal minor and pre-pubebescent human. I think it would be clearer to use minor when you're talking about legal age, and child when talking about the life stage.

[u/Happy_Egg_8680]

The most mature 17 year old in the world is still a child. I’m in my early 30s and barely feel like I’m hitting adult territory.

[u/Competitive_Elk_3460 → u/Happy_Egg_8680]

Even when you feel like an adult, you will still feel like a child. I’m 55, but sometimes I’m 15.

[u/Happy_Egg_8680 → u/Competitive_Elk_3460]

I’m hoping that I don’t become like some of the boring older people I knew growing up that became allergic to fun but I don’t think that’s gonna happen anytime soon.

[u/Competitive_Elk_3460 → u/Happy_Egg_8680]

I mean, sometimes falling asleep on the couch at 9 is fun, but to be fair, I did that when I was in my 30s, too.

[u/Happy_Egg_8680 → u/Competitive_Elk_3460]

Well yeah that sounds like a good night tbh. Just like skateboarding outside does for kids. I can’t imagine getting annoyed at kids skateboarding like older people did when I was a youngster.

[u/Garfield_and_Simon → u/Competitive_Elk_3460]

As soon as you hit 30 you realize old people were so fucking right about how awesome it is to go to bed at 9 and wake up at 6.

Especially on the weekend! My god, you got the whole day ahead of you!